E3 2016: Xbox One games – hands on impressions

At E3 2016, Xbox held an “International Media event” that gave us access to their entire show floor games line-up for about two hours. With short lines, I managed to play four games: Dead Rising 4, Sea of Thieves, Forza Horizon 3, and ReCore. Here my impressions of each:

Dead Rising 4

The E3 trailer for Dead Rising 4 was a major highlight during Microsoft’s press conference, not only because the game was announced, but also because of the humourous “Jingle Bell Rock” Christmas song and the funny tag line “Let the Slay Ride Begin.” That theme definitely rang true during my play through, which set me into the role of photographer zombie slayer Frank West who returns to Willamette, Colarado–the iconic setting of the first game. As Frank I plowed through hordes of zombies (100s) all packed into the streets. I was able to execute zombies using a variety of weapons, including a thunder axe, an exploding firework crossbow, baseball bat, and a variety of guns. Later, I opened a chest and got an exoskeleton that is extremely powerful and also gives Frank added protection. During my roughly ten minutes with the game, I had an absolute blast taking down huge packs of zombies and it made me look forward to playing this Christmas-themed next entry even more.

Sea of Thieves

Of all the game I’ve played at E3 thus far, Sea of Thieves is one of my favourites. I wasn’t sure exactly how the game would play going by the trailers, but after joining a group of five pirates during my demo I now have a good sense of the fun and thrills that lie ahead. Essentially, your pirate crew has to work effectively as a team to perform tasks like raising/lowering your ship’s anchor, unfurl and position the mast, attack enemy ships with cannonballs, and repair your own ship after suffering damage. The whole game is very light-hearted and fun–I had a blast working with my team mates in our attempt to destroy enemy ships while staying afloat ourselves!

Forza Horizon 3

I had the opportunity to play one race using the new Lamborghini Centenario (which is so pristine by the way), beginning on a highway and eventually taking me into the Australian outback. At that point, I switched vehicles to a heavy offroader and raced through swamps, wet roads, and dusty flatlands. I loved all the visual variety the new Australia environments offered, which should make this virtual trip very interesting.

Recore

The last game I tried was ReCore, the exciting new action-adventure game from Keiji Inafune, the main illustrator for the Mega Man series, and producer on Lost Planet and Dead Rising. The two biggest takeaways I got from my brief session is that the woman you play as has the ability to call in robotic support units, including a robotic dog and robotic spider-like creature, and secondly, you can change your attack “colour” (red, blue, yellow) to inflict more damage on your opponents. The way it works is this: enemies will each be coloured, say red as an example, and if you switch your gunfire to red as well, you’ll inflict more damage. If you attack with a different colour, blue for instance, it’ll inflict less damage on the red enemy. Also, you’re able to call in your robotic support units to aid you in battle, which is very cool. Each robot partner has a cool-down period, so what you end up doing is calling a support unit in for an attack, and then switch to another robotic partner while the first one cools down. It’s a fun game mechanic, and I can’t wait to play more of ReCore!

What games that Microsoft showed at E3 2016 are you most excited about? Let me know in the comments section below!